😇🗽🇺🇸⚖️ NDPA ALERT⚠️ HELPING NEWLY ARRIVED ASYLUM SEEKERS IN THE NYC METRO AREA? — CHECK OUT THIS GREAT NEW RESOURCE FROM DOCUMENTED & THE INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE! — As Government Enters An Era Of “Bipartisan Planned Failure,” Conscious Ineptitude, & Chaos On Human Rights & Justice In America, NGOs, Localities, & Private Entities Must Continue To Step Up & Make the System Work, In Spite Of Itself!🤯🤬 

Helping Hand
A Helping Hand.jpg
Image depicts a child coming to the aid of another in need. Once we have climbed it is essential for the sake of humanity that we help others do the same. It is knowing that we all could use, and have used, a helping hand.
Safiyyah Scoggins – PVisions1111
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
While some politicos and voters have abandoned Traditional Judeo-Christian values in favor of a cruel and demonstrably ineffective response to forced migration, the rest of us must hold true to our “better angels.”

IRC, Documented, launch resource platform for NYC asylum seekers and migrants: Documented.info

Legacy media has been providing service journalism focused on middle-class and wealthier communities for decades, and Documented is proud to bring this tradition of service journalism to low-income immigrant communities who have often been left out of the conversation.

Over the past year, Documented has been working with the International Rescue Committee to launch a digital platform called Documented.info (sneak peak link). This new digital platform is designed to provide asylum seekers and migrants in New York City with reliable, multilingual information covering everything from access to shelter and mental health resources, employment eligibility, and labor rights to how to navigate the asylum process and find legal support.

Anyone familiar with Documented knows that this is not a departure from how we’ve served immigrant readers since we launched in 2018. During the pandemic, it became clear that the immigrant community urgently needed practical, actionable information to address their concerns, whether about the legal system, government programs, or even basic necessities like where to find food. We received so many questions that it made sense to start documenting the answers we were giving.

This led to the creation of a collection of resource guides, explainers, and articles, all designed to address the questions we were being asked. To ensure accuracy and relevance, we collaborated with immigration lawyers, advocates, experts in the field, and individuals familiar with immigrant communities, allowing us to provide a comprehensive breakdown that directly addressed the communities’ needs.

Documented’s staff, including Rommel H. Ojeda, who’s our correspondent for Spanish-speaking communities, began interacting with readers and immigrant communities on Documented’s WhatsApp platform. He then began to populate Documented’s website with resources to help the immigrant and undocumented population in New York City find information about legal representation, financial relief, and more. That guide grew into a list of hundreds of helpful resources on our website, which consist of information about education, child care, employment, workers rights, finances, food aid, health, safety, housing, shelter, legal services, scams, and misinformation, to name a few.

“When New York City had asylum seekers coming in, we saw that a lot of the obstacles they were facing were also related to the guides that we had already created for migrants that were here five to 10 years before them,” Ojeda said. “I think just having this constant dialog with the community where we are answering their questions through experts, we’re also able to provide the guides to new people in the sense that we can send it to them as soon as they contact us. With this new partnership, we are able to continue doing that work, but on a larger scale.”

Documented.info addresses the unique challenges asylum seekers and immigrants — especially those from underserved backgrounds — face in navigating complex legal systems and services. Immigrants can message their questions to Documented.info via popular messaging platforms Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger. Journalists and experts respond — in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and French at launch — and share actionable resources, vetted services and original, targeted reporting. The platform aims to close critical information gaps, counter misinformation affecting immigrant communities and build trust.

“I’m pretty glad that we have the Haitian Creole version because we have thousands of newly arrived Haitian immigrants who came to New York, especially under the Humanitarian Parole Program,” said Ralph Thomassaint Joseph, Documented’s correspondent for non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean communities, who has been leading our engagement with communities on Nextdoor.

And there’s more. Continue reading on Documented to see what leaders at the International Rescue Committee and Documented have to say about the new Documented.info digital platform.

Have tips on furthering this story? Share your thoughts with us by responding to this email or sending us a message at earlyarrival@documentedny.com

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Many thanks to all the NDPA warriors involved in this wonderful cooperative effort. We need to be asking why our politicos and national governance is failing so miserably to face and promote the truth about asylum and other aspects of legal migration and to take actions for the common good, rather than squandering resources, promoting cruelty and lawlessness, and  “picking on the most vulnerable” to gain a perceived political upper hand?

Beyond that, we need to be planning NOW on how to prevent a repeat of this year’s utterly disgraceful, totally toxic, wrong-headed, badly misleading, and blatantly dishonest treatment of, and “non-dialogue” about, the immigration, human rights, and equal justice issues by politicos of both parties during this election season! This bogus dialogue was scandalously and unprofessionally parroted and aided by the “MSM!” 🤮 No matter who wins in November, we must strive to do better in the future — for everyone’s sake and for the good of our nation!🇺🇸⚖️🗽

Due Process Forever!⚖️🗽

PWS

THE GIBSON REPORT — 10-12-20 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Esquire. NY Legal Assistance Group —  DocumentedNY Takes You Inside The Maliciously Incompetent Kakistocracy Known As Immigration “Courts,” That Aren’t “Courts” At All & Where The Victims Might Never Have Any Idea Of Why They Are Being “Ordered Deported” By “Judges” Beholden To the Regime’s Corrupt & Racist Enforcement Apparatus! (Item #5 Under “Top- News”) — Plus Other News From The Regime’s “Twilight Zone!”

Elizabeth Gibson
Elizabeth Gibson
Attorney, NY Legal Assistance Group
Publisher of “The Gibson Report”

COVID-19

Note: Policies are rapidly changing, so please verify information on the relevant government websites and with colleagues on listservs as best you can.

 

EOIR Status Overview & EOIR Court Status Map/List: Hearings in non-detained cases at courts without an announced date are postponed through, and including, October 30, 2020. [Note: Despite the standing order about practices upon reopening, an opening date has not been announced for NYC non-detained at this time.]

 

TOP NEWS

 

ICE Is Planning To Fast-Track Deportations Across The Country

Buzzfeed: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have started to implement a policy that allows officers to arrest and rapidly deport undocumented immigrants who have been in the US for less than two years, according to internal emails and documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

 

Amid pandemic, sharply increased U.S. detention times put migrants at risk

Reuters: Detention centers now house fewer than half as many people as before the pandemic – less than 20,000 as of early October – in part because emergency health measures established in March have allowed authorities to expel nearly 150,000 migrants at the border. At the same time, the ICE data show, the average amount of time immigrants spent in U.S. detention almost tripled to three months this September compared to September 2016, before President Donald Trump took office. Detainees in September 2020 were being held nearly double the amount of time as in September 2019.

 

San Diego judge upholds state ban on private immigration detention centers

LA Times: Under the ruling, at least four immigration detention centers with the capacity to house about 5,000 people would be phased out over the coming years.

 

Justice Department cancels diversity training, including for immigration judges

SF Chron: The U.S. Justice Department has suspended all diversity and inclusion training and events for its employees, according to a memo obtained by The Chronicle, which would include judges in San Francisco and elsewhere hearing cases of immigrants seeking to avoid deportation.

 

How the Immigration Courts Malfunctioned: What We Saw

DocumentedNY: A prosecuting attorney for ICE losing a detainee´s file, immigrants spending more time in jail because the video teleconferencing system malfunctioned, a judge deporting children because they failed to show up to court. The following are some of the negligences we saw after we spent three months in the immigration courts.

 

Supreme Court Reopens Local Leader’s Immigration Case

DocumentedNY: Ravi Ragbir, an immigrant advocate who runs the New Sanctuary Coalition, has been fighting his deportation with a First Amendment claim

 

‘We Need to Take Away Children,’ No Matter How Young, Justice Dept. Officials Said

NYT: Top department officials were “a driving force” behind President Trump’s child separation policy, a draft investigation report said.

 

ICE Arrested More Than 100 Immigrants In California Weeks Before The Presidential Election

Buzzfeed: The arrests were the latest effort by ICE to target the state and its policies that reduce the cooperation between local police and federal agents when it comes to immigration enforcement.

 

The Matter Of Castro Tum

LatinoUSA: In 2018, a young Guatemalan man named Reynaldo Castro Tum was ordered deported even though no one in the U.S. government knew where he was, or how to find him. Now, more than two years later, his unusual journey through the United States’ immigration system has sucked another man back into a legal quagmire he thought that he’d escaped. This episode follows both of their stories and the fateful moment they collided.

 

LITIGATION/CASELAW/RULES/MEMOS

 

EOIR Payment Portal

EOIR: The EOIR Payment Portal is available to pay BIA Filing Fees associated with the form EOIR-26 and related BIA Motions. Filing fees for the Form EOIR-29 and related motions should continue to be paid in accordance with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instructions. Payments for immigration court fees must follow current processes (See 8 C.F.R. 1103.7).

 

EOIR Announces 20 New Immigration Judges

EOIR announced the investiture of 20 new immigration judges, including three assistant chief immigration judges. Per the notice, EOIR’s immigration judge corps has increased nearly 70 percent since January 2017. Notice includes the judges’ biographical information and courts of appointment. AILA Doc. No. 20101200

 

Oral Argument This Week in Pereida v. Barr

ImmProf: Oral argument in the case is scheduled for this Wednesday morning, October 14, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The argument may be listened to live. In Pereida, the Supreme Court will decide whether a criminal conviction bars a noncitizen from applying for relief from removal when the record of conviction is merely ambiguous as to whether it corresponds to an offense listed in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

 

Petitions of the week: Sanchez v. Wolf

SCOTUSblog: The case asks whether a grant of Temporary Protected Status authorizes eligible noncitizens to obtain lawful-permanent-resident status if those noncitizens originally entered the United States without being “inspected and admitted” – a term of art referring to lawful entry and authorization by an immigration officer.

 

USCIS Updates Policy Guidance on TPS and Eligibility for Adjustment of Status Under INA §245(a)

USCIS is updating policy guidance in the Policy Manual confirming that a grant of TPS is not admission for INA §245(a) adjustment purposes; clarifying that the applicability of decisions in the sixth and ninth circuits is limited to those jurisdictions; and incorporating Matter of Z-R-Z-C. AILA Doc. No. 20100635

 

Second District Court Grants Motion for Preliminary Injunction of USCIS Fee Rule

A district court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and stayed the effective date of the USCIS Final Rule (except for those fees set by statute) pending resolution of the matter or further order of the court. (NWIRP et al., v. USCIS, et al., 10/8/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100909

 

District Court Declares Unlawful 2018 SIJ Policy Imposing Reunification Requirement on State Courts

A federal district court in Washington State declared unlawful a 2018 policy requiring state courts to have jurisdiction to order reunification, if warranted, before making the relevant Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) findings. (Moreno Galvez, et al. v. Cuccinelli, et al., 10/5/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100842

 

BIA Rules That Cancellation of Removal Despite Criminal Conviction Precludes a Later Finding of Deportability Based on the Same Conviction

The BIA ruled that if a criminal conviction was charged as a ground of removability when cancellation of removal was granted, that conviction cannot serve as the sole factual predicate for a charge of removability in subsequent removal proceedings. Matter of Voss, 28 I&N Dec. 107 (BIA 2020) AILA Doc. No. 20100840

 

CA1 Finds “Wealthy Immigrants Returning to Jamaica” Is Not a Cognizable Particular Social Group

The court held that the petitioner’s withholding of removal claim failed, because it found that “wealthy immigrants returning to the country of Jamaica” did not form a cognizable particular social group. (Lee v. Barr, 9/22/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100535

 

CA1 Upholds Asylum Denial to Kenyan Petitioner Who Opposed Al-Shabaab

The court upheld the BIA’s denial of asylum, finding that terror attacks in Kenya by Al-Shabaab constituted generalized violence, and rejecting the petitioner’s proposed social group of westernized and Americanized Christian Kenyans who oppose Al-Shabaab. (Zhakira v. Barr, 10/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100901

 

CA3 Holds It Lacks Jurisdiction to Review IJ’s Discretionary Denial of Continuance to Petitioner Convicted of Aggravated Felony

Where petitioner, who had been convicted of an aggravated felony, argued that the BIA erred in upholding the IJ’s denial of his motion for a continuance, the court dismissed the petition, finding he had failed to state a constitutional claim or question of law. (Mirambeaux v. Barr, 10/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100903

 

CA3 Rejects Due Process Claims of Mexican Petitioner Who Sought Cancellation of Removal

Where BIA had dismissed petitioner’s appeal on the ground that his removal would not cause his daughters “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship,” the court rejected his two due process challenges, finding that neither was a constitutional claim. (Hernandez-Morales v. Att’y Gen., 9/2/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100902

 

CA5 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Chinese Petitioner Who Claimed He Had an Anti-Corruption Political Belief

The court upheld the BIA’s denial of asylum to the Chinese petitioner, finding that the evidence did not compel a reasonable factfinder to conclude that the petitioner had been persecuted for his political opinion rather than for personal reasons. (Du v. Barr, 9/14/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100540

 

CA8 Finds BIA Did Not Abuse Its Discretion in Denying Petitioner’s Motion to Reopen Based on Ineffective Assistance

The court upheld the BIA’s denial of the petitioner’s motion to reopen, finding that the petitioner had not substantially complied with the requirements in Matter of Lozada for reopening removal proceedings based on alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. (Avitso v. Barr, 9/22/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100537

 

CA9 Upholds District Court Order Prohibiting Government from Detaining Certain Minors in Hotels for Longer Than 72 Hours

The court denied the government’s motion for a stay of the district court’s order precluding DHS from placing minors detained under a Title 42 public health order in hotels for more than three days in the process of expelling them from the United States. (Flores v. Barr, et al., 10/4/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100906

 

CA9 Upholds Asylum Denial to Guatemalan Petitioner Who Did Not Report Abuse by Ex-Boyfriend to Police

Upholding the denial of asylum to the petitioner, who had been abused by her ex-boyfriend, the court held that substantial evidence supported the conclusion that the Guatemalan government could have protected the petitioner had she reported her abuse. (Velasquez-Gaspar v. Barr, 9/30/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100904

 

CA9 Finds Petitioner Was Properly in Asylum-Only Proceedings and IJ Lacked Jurisdiction to Consider Adjustment of Status Request

The court held that the termination of petitioner’s grant of asylum by reopening his asylum-only proceedings was not error, and that the IJ did not have jurisdiction to consider his request for adjustment of status because of the limited scope of such proceedings. (Bare v. Barr, 9/16/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100630

 

CA9 Holds That Petitioner’s Oregon Conviction for Manufacture of a Controlled Substance Was an Aggravated Felony

The court held that Oregon Revised Statute §475.992(1)(a) is divisible as between its “manufacture” and “delivery” terms, and that the petitioner’s conviction under that statute for manufacturing marijuana was thus an aggravated felony. (Dominguez v. Barr, 7/21/20, amended 9/18/20) AILA Doc. No. 20081036

 

CA9 Says Conviction Under California Penal Code §245(a)(1) for Assault with a Deadly Weapon Other Than a Firearm Is a CIMT

Deferring to the BIA’s decision in Matter of Wu, the court held that a conviction under California Penal Code §245(a)(1), which proscribes certain aggravated forms of assault, is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT). (Safaryan v. Barr, 9/17/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100631

 

CA9 Overrules Minto v. Sessions and Concludes Resident of CNMI Is Not Removable Under INA §212(a)(7)(a)(i)

The en banc court overruled Minto v. Sessions, holding that the petitioner, who was present in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) when the INA became applicable there, was not removable under INA §212(a)(7)(a)(i). (Torres v. Barr, 9/24/20) AILA Doc. No. 20100538

 

DOS Issues Update on Court Order Regarding Presidential Proclamation 10052

DOS announced that due to the injunction in NAM v. DHS, any J-1, H-1B, H-2B, or L-1 applicant who is either sponsored (as an exchange visitor) by, petitioned by, or whose petitioner is a member of, one of the plaintiffs in the suit is no longer subject to PP 10052’s entry restrictions. AILA Doc. No. 20100536

 

RESOURCES

 

 

EVENTS

   

 

ImmProf

 

Monday, October 12, 2020

Sunday, October 11, 2020

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Friday, October 9, 2020

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Monday, October 5, 2020

 

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Only the “tip of the iceberg” in a thoroughly corrupt and totally dysfunctional system that nobody seems willing to put out of its misery and the injustices that it causes humanity and the rule of law each day that it continues to grind out gross miscarriages of justice!

PWS

10-13-20